For the majority of my dental career I have been treating human patients. Every once in a while a situation arises where the skills that I learned in dental school need to carry over to other species. You may be thinking what could a dentist possibly do on something other than a human, but stick with me on this one.

The story starts on a Friday evening a few weeks back when I got a telephone call from one of our assistants. Her children were in the yard playing baseball. One was pitching to the other who was batting. An innocent game of ball you might think until another family member decided to take part in the game - Ozzie, the German Shepherd.

Ozzie came into the scene as the ball was pitched and the bat was swung. Ozzie, being a dog, did what most dogs would do when he sees a ball in mid air. He went to catch the ball. Unfortunately, he came a little too close to the bat and got hit right in the mouth.

After getting a good look at the dog, my assistant made a pretty accurate assessment of the situation. After all, 20 plus years in a dental practice makes her well-educated to many situations that arise including dental trauma. The lower left canine tooth was missing the top one-third portion. She could see where the inner pulp tissue was exposed. Now before you cringe in pain as you read this, the dog was eating, drinking and munching on ice cubes a short time later.

I have gotten some different trauma calls in my career both in private practice and in the hospital setting, but this was really out of the ordinary. When my assistant described what she saw, the first thing I was thinking of is how am I going to do anything for this 100 pound dog. Saturday morning came along and my doorbell rang. It was my assistant with Ozzie, now our patient. She had just been to see Dr. Smith, the veterinarian, and a plan was beginning to be formulated. Ozzie is less than 2 years old, and it would be a shame to have to take out this tooth on such a young dog. Instead, we decided to go ahead and fix the tooth.

After some coordinating of schedules with Dr. Smith and myself, a date was set. My assistant and I gathered some equipment that we would need. We were also loaned some equipment from Jim Rook, our Benco Dental supply rep.

Off we went to Dr. Smith's office where we met the patient. Dr. Smith took care of the anesthesia, and I went to work. Since the nerve of the tooth had been exposed, I had no other choice but to do a root canal on it. I had spent some time researching dog tooth anatomy so that I would know what I was getting into. It was less complicated than I had thought and all went smoothly.

After completing the root canal treatment, I then was able to rebuild the tooth using a tooth colored filling and reshape it to the proper contour. I chose not to build it to the same height as the other side, so that less strain would be placed on the filling and there would be less of a chance of Ozzie breaking it.

Ozzie now has a completely normal looking and functioning canine tooth again. As long as he stays away from baseball bats and like objects, he should be set for life with this tooth.

I have a great love for my career both in private practice and the teaching aspect. This enabled me to take my knowledge and talents to help a different type of patient.

I would like to thank every person who came to our office and had their teeth whitened to support children's charities. This year we are able to contribute $8,800 to both local and national children's charities through the Smiles For Life teeth whitening event. You have gotten a whiter smile and brightened a child's life.

Dr. Michael K. Keating, DDS, is a dentist in Auburn and can be reached at 252-7278 or e-mail him at DrMike@FingerLakesSmiles.com